﻿2/8 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Juiie 25, 



diately on the Chalk is, as at Brighton, so distinctly waterworn and 

 washed, that the long-continued and quiet action of the sea on them 

 can hardly he doubted. It is apparently an old sea-beach, ending 

 rather abruptly against an ancient chalk-cliff*, and about 10 to 12 

 feet above the level of the present beach (see A. fig. 1). The trans- 

 ition from this bed to the overlying mass of drift is sudden and 

 abrupt. In the first place, it is evident that the same sea which 

 washed the base of this old cliff — carrying away the chalk, and 

 leaving the heavier flints spread out on a sloping shore — could never 

 have formed, whilst its conditions remained unchanged, the superim- 

 posed 60 to 80 feet of rubble. Nor is there any evidence of a quiet 

 depression of the land, and consequently of a gradual extension up- 

 wards of the conditions which prevail below. The change, on the 

 contrary, is sudden and complete, and maintained throughout the 

 whole of the overlying mass which has accumulated against the face 

 of the old cliff — burying and not levelling it — neither forming suc- 

 cessive zones or steps on it. 



What may have been the causes which led to this result, or the 

 exact mode of operation, is another question. It is one which we can 

 expect to solve only by collecting a number of facts of this description ; 

 and afterwards, by sorting and grouping the data we may thus obtain, 

 we may hope to arrive at some of the more general laws relating to this 

 important and interesting problem. The observations of Mr. Austen 

 have already furnished us with many valuable details bearing upon this 

 point on the South Coast of England ; the Drift at Sangatte, and 

 much of that described by Sir R. Murchison in his recent paper, 

 agreeing apparently with that which Mr. Austen has described in a 

 number of other localities under the designation of Subaerial bedsf . 

 Whether, therefore, this class of phsenomena indicates, as I believe, 

 sudden and tumultuous sub-aqueous action, or whether they are to 

 be attributed to the more ordinary and tranquil causes in operation 

 in the waters or on the surface, their extent and importance cannot 

 be overlooked, and will, it is to be hoped, lead to further inquiry. 



2. On the Gravel-beds of the Valley of the Wey. 

 By R. A. C. Austen, Esq., F.R.S., G.S. 



The river Wey takes its rise within the area of the Wealden denu- 

 dation, of the north-western portion of which it conveys away the 

 waters into the London basin through the break in the chalk-range 

 at Guildford. The portion of the valley of the Wey which mainly 

 furnishes subject-matter for the present communication lies imme- 

 diately south of Guildford, towards Godalming. 



* The course of the old cliff inland requires to be traced. This is difficult, as 

 the great accumulation of drift has rendered it flush with the present surface of 

 the land, which forms level fields in which there are no excavations. 



t Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. vii. p. 118 et seq. 



